(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a telephone transaction support system used for various transactions (such as banking transactions) over telephones, and more particularly to a telephone transaction support system which processes information obtained in conversations with customers over telephones. In addition, the present invention also relates to a telephone call connection control system by which a call from a customer is connected to a telephone of an operator who is selected as a congenial operator to the customer from among a plurality of operators.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, banking transactions (e.g., transactions of transfer, deposit, withdrawal and balance inquiry) over telephones have been proposed.
In such banking transactions over the telephones, there are many problems, such as how to register customers permitted to access banking transactions over the telephones (registration of customer""s information, registration of a password of a customer and the like), how to supply documents, such as applications and contract documents to customers, how to confirm whether a customer is permitted to make telephone transactions, how to confirm the contents of a transaction after receiving the contents of the transaction over the telephone (hereinafter referred to as a telephone transaction) and the like.
In addition, in enterprises, such as banks, a plurality of operators talk with customers over telephones for service assistance and reception of transactions. An exchange control for the telephones is carried out so that a call from a customer is connected to a telephone of one of the plurality of operators. In a conventional system, an automatic call distribution (ACD) unit is provided with an exchange unit, so that calls from customers are substantially uniformly distributed to the operators. Thus, the services of assistance and reception of transactions are prevented from being concentrated on a few operators.
However, calls from customers are only uniformly distributed to the operators without regard to relationships between the customers and the operators. Thus, a call from a customer may be connected to a telephone of an operator who is not congenial with that customer.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a novel and useful telephone transaction support system and a telephone call connection control system in which the disadvantages of the aforementioned prior art are eliminated.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a telephone transaction support system by which information of customers and passwords identifying customers can be registered in the system over the telephones without documents.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by a telephone transaction support system comprising: customer information registration means for registering information regarding a customer in a database, the information being obtained in a conversation with the customer over a telephone; feature analyzing means for analyzing a feature of a voice corresponding to a predetermined word obtained in the conversation with the customer over the telephone; and password information registration means for registering information obtained by the feature analyzing means as password information in the database, the password information corresponding to the customer in the database.
According to the above telephone transaction support system, the information regarding the customer for which a transaction over the telephone should be allowed and the password information for the customer can be registered over the telephone.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a telephone transaction support system by which documents, such as a contract document and an admission application, related to a transaction over a telephone can be issued in a convenient manner for the customer.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by a telephone transaction support system comprising: customer information registration means for registering information regarding a customer in a database, the information being obtained in a conversation with the customer over a telephone; retrieval means for retrieving information regarding the customer who wants to make a contract for a transaction over a telephone from the information in the database; and print means for printing necessary items regarding the customer on a predetermined sheet related to the telephone transaction based on the information retrieved by the retrieval means.
According to the above telephone transaction support system, the necessary items regarding the customer are printed on the predetermined sheet such as a contract document and an admission application. It is not necessary for the customer to enter the necessary items regarding the customer into the predetermined sheet. Thus, the documents, such as a contract document and an admission application, related to a telephone transaction can be issued in a convenient manner for the customer.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a telephone transaction support system which positively confirms whether the telephone transaction has been allowed for the customer, based on information obtained in the telephone conversation with the customer.
The above object of the preset invention is achieved by a telephone transaction support system comprising: feature analyzing means for analyzing a feature of a voice corresponding to a predetermined word obtained in a telephone conversation with a customer; a database in which information obtained by the feature analyzing means is stored as password information, the password information corresponds to the customer in the database; and checking means for checking an analyzing result obtained by the analyzing means which analyzes a feature of a voice corresponding to the predetermined word obtained in a telephone conversation with a customer before a transaction is performed against the password information stored in the database corresponding to the customer.
According to the above telephone transaction support system, the transaction with the customer is allowed when the analyzing result corresponding to the password information is obtained by checking means before starting the transaction. Thus, based on information obtained in the telephone conversation with a customer, it can be positively confirmed whether the telephone transaction has been allowed for the customer.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a telephone transaction support system by which a user of the system can be informed of information regarding a customer in a telephone conversation with the customer as soon as possible.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by a telephone transaction support system comprising: customer information registration means for registering information regarding a customer in a database, the information being obtained in a telephone conversation with the customer; means for inputting information identifying the customer; retrieval means for retrieving information regarding the customer based on the input information identifying the customer from the database; and display means for displaying the information retrieved by the retrieval means.
According to the above telephone transaction support system, the information regarding the customer is displayed by the display means. The user looks at the information regarding the customer, so that the user has knowledge of the customer in the telephone conversation with the customer.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a telephone transaction support system in which the contents of a transaction requested by a customer over a telephone can always be confirmed.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by a telephone transaction support system comprising: transaction registration means for registering contents of a transaction in a database, the contents of the transaction being requested by a customer over a telephone; and conversation recording means for recording contents of transaction in a telephone conversation with the customer in the database, the recorded contents of the conversation corresponding to the transaction in the database.
According to the above telephone transaction support system, it can be checked whether the contents of the transaction registered in the database corresponds to the contents of the conversation recorded in the database. Thus, based on the checking results, it can be always confirmed whether the registered contents of the transaction is correct.
The fifth object of the present invention is also achieved by a telephone transaction support system comprising: a database in which contents of a telephone transaction requested by a customer and contents of a conversation with the customer in the telephone transaction, the contents of the conversation corresponding to the transaction in the database; transaction specifying means for specifying a transaction; reading out means for reading out the contents of the transaction specified by the transaction specifying means from the database; first output means for outputting the contents of the transaction read out from the database by the reading out means; conversation reading out means for reading out the contents of the conversation corresponding to the transaction from the database; and second output means for outputting the contents of the transaction read out from the database by the conversation reading out means.
According to the above telephone transaction support system, the user can compare the contents of the transaction output by the first output means with the contents of the conversation output by the second means. Thus, it can be always confirmed, based on the comparison result, whether the registered contents of the transaction is correct.
A sixth object of the present invention is to provide a telephone call connection control system by which a call from a customer can be connected to a telephone of an operator, from among a plurality of operators, who is congenial to the customer.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by a telephone call connection control system comprising: a voice feature database in which voice feature data items representing features of voices of a plurality of operators are stored; feature analyzing means for analyzing a feature of a voice corresponding to a predetermined word obtained from a customer over a telephone; operator selecting means for comparing data regarding the feature of the voice of the customer obtained by the feature analyzing means with voice feature data items of the respective operators in the voice feature database, and for selecting an operator corresponding to a voice feature data item which has a predetermined relationship to the data regarding the feature of the voice of the customer; and connection control means for connecting a call from the customer to a telephone of the operator selected by the operator selecting means.
It is known that general character of a person can be judged based on a feature of a voice of the person (see Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No.7-102631). Thus, it is determined, based on features of voices of a customer and operators, whether the operators are congenial to the customer. Based on the determination result, an operator who is congenial to the customer is selected from among a plurality of operators. A call from the customer is then connected to a telephone of the selected operator.
The above sixth object of the present invention is also achieved by a telephone call connection control system comprising: a response operator database in which relationships between customers and operators congenial to the respective customers are stored; retrieval means for retrieving information of an operator who is congenial to a customer calling the system; and connection control means for connecting a call from the customer to a telephone of the operator selected by the retrieval means.
According to the above telephone call connection control system, an operator who is recorded as a congenial operator to the customer in the response operator database is selected. A call from the customer is connected to a telephone of the selected operator.
Further, the above sixth object of the present invention is achieved by a telephone call connection control system comprising: a voice feature database in which voice feature data items representing features of voices of a plurality of operators are stored; feature analyzing means for analyzing a feature of a voice corresponding to a predetermined word obtained from a customer over a telephone; operator selecting means for comparing data regarding the feature of the voice of the customer obtained by the feature analyzing means with voice feature data items of the respective operators in the voice feature database, and for selecting an operator corresponding to a voice feature data item which has a predetermined relationship to the data regarding the feature of the voice of the customer; response operator registration means for registering the operator selected by the operator selecting means in a response operator database, the operator corresponding to the customer in the response operator database; retrieval means for retrieving information of an operator who is congenial to a customer calling the system; and connection control means for connecting a call from the customer to a telephone of the operator selected by the retrieval means.